Toby Dammit. 1968. Directed by Federico Fellini.

(5/27/01)

Toby Dammit is a section of an omnibus film based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. The story that Fellini's episode was based on was not identified, which was a disappointment because I would like to have read it.

The story is updated to then-contemporary Italy. An actor comes to Italy to appear in the first Catholic western. He is interviewed and then goes to an awards show at which he is expected to speak. He drinks, is dissipated and is obviously disgusted with the whole business. All he really cares about is a fancy car which he is to be given. When he gets it he drives off and seems to get lost in a kind of maze. He is haunted by the image of a young girl with a ball. At the end he finds her on the other side of a breach in the road. He attemps to cross the space in his car, but crashes.

This really impressed me for the sheer style, the sheer personality of Fellini. It is full of his baroque or bizarre imagery--this time in color. It is simply that the director's strong personality comes through so clearly that I found interesting. Other than that, there isn't that much that I have to say about this piece. Nino Rota's music, though the work of another man, is an important part of Fellini's style.

Terence Stamp does sort of resemble Edgar Allan Poe, although he is blonde and Poe was dark. He is further linked to Poe through his drinking and his moodiness. There is a sense here of show business as shabby and grotesque, which we had seen before in 8-1/2. It is sickening, disgusting and we can appreciate Toby's revulsion with the whole sordid business, the vulgarity.

Toby says that he doesn't believe in God but believes in the Devil. Somewhere (I think) the girl with the ball is identified with the Devil. What does it all mean? Is Fellini saying that without a belief in God all is hopeless? I don't know. I didn't understand this film.